


until there's nothing left

by leechmaster



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo | Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Doomed Timelines, Gen, Post-Canon, kinda in development hell tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 03:56:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13942071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leechmaster/pseuds/leechmaster
Summary: It turns out that, when the world itself is falling apart at the seams and all hope seems lost, the ones you always overlooked are the ones that succeed where even legends have failed.EDIT ON EDIT: as of 1/19/19, this fic is officially uncancelled! "chapter" 3 has been deleted and updates will start again sometime after valentines day.





	until there's nothing left

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: has not only the summoner/grima fic to work on, but like. 300 other wips  
> also me: makes this slow-burn monstrosity
> 
> this could be the lack of sleep talking, but i genuinely believe this could put me on the map.

_The story of_

_The Hero-King Marth_

_Is a glorious tale._

_one of magic, adventure, love and betrayal._

_Truly, the story of Marth is the most well-known and influential of them all._

_But, as with all things, there is more than one story, no matter what anyone says to the contrary._

* * *

The faint sound of the clock tower's bell could be heard throughout the empty forest, signalling the coming of midnight. The beginning of a storm could be seen on the horizon. Regardless, the light of the full moon shone like the fang of Naga herself.

On a beaten dirt path, the dancer girl Phina could be seen, uncharacteristically lugging a small wooden wagon, loaded with a sack that could've had everything but an axe and log in it. But her determined face gave no signs of defeat. Eventually, she reached the remains of what was once a small, but thriving village. Every building had been pilfered and destroyed, save for a ramshackle shack at the outskirts.

Which happened to be her destination.

She gave the wagon one last pull to the shack's front, and let out a sharp exhale, relived to no longer have the burden of something she was most definitely wasn't equipped to handle.

Adopting an expression of slight annoyance, she walked up to the door and began to pound at it.

"Oi! I brought the stuff you said you needed, so open up!"

The door swung open fiercely, revealing a slender, hooded figure, letting out a slight growl. Phina didn't even try to hide her annoyance.

"Oh my-! Take that off! It's me, Phina! You know, the one you specifically requested be here?!"

"Okay, okay!" The figure yelped, pulling off his hood to reveal Samto's smiling face, "Took ya' long enough!"

"What can I say? Lugging a big-ass wagon to a crackhouse in the middle of the woods takes time, ya know?"

Samto slightly blushed. "Alright, that's fair." He gently poked his head out the door, taking note of the sky above. "I suppose you should come in before it starts rainin', yeah?

"Probably."

She haphazardly stepped into the shack, with Samto just a moment behind.

It hadn't even been a minute since she took refuge in the shack and sat down at an oddly carved table that she broke the silence.

"So! Let's get down to business: what did you need all that stuff for?"

Samto sheepishly smiled, rubbing the scars over his left eye. "Oh! I, uh, suppose I forgot to tell ya. Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, the reason I needed all that stuff was because-" he saw Phina staring off into empty space. "...You doin' okay?"

She snapped back with a slight gasp, and almost fell out of her chair. She looked at / with an ashamed face.

"Ugh, sorry! I've just... been thinking about Navarre a lot."

"...Navarre." Samto gave a sad smile. "Haven't heard that name in a while."

She got out of the chair, and leaned against the wall.

"...You know what happened. We were there. Three years ago... when Marth led the attack on Pales. You remember, right?

"As if I could forget!" Samto said, "We thought we had it in the bag! I mean, we did everything right, didn't we? We fought off every bastard general and crazy dragon we could! We liberated entire countries, by the Gods! And yet, somehow we still lost."

A heavy air hung low. neither of them spoke, but they both knew what they were thinking. The possibility that Navarre had been lost in that battle... it was too horrible for words. Or maybe neither just felt the need to talk.

Phina was the one to break the silence.

"...Sorry to go off like that. I just needed to get it off my chest."

Samto gave a small laugh. "Hey, it's alright! We got three years of bad times behind us; it's not that shameful, honestly."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it!" She said, giving a bright smile. "Oh! I almost forgot! Why did you have me drag those tomes here?"

"Oh! Almost slipped my mind there, haha~! To answer that question... can I show ya somethin'? And bring the wagon with you, it’s gonna be important, trust me on this."

The dancer nodded in agreement, albeit with a slight look of disappointment upon hearing of the miserable wagon. Taking this into account, Samto pulled his hood back up and exited the shack. Walking through the ruined village and into a half-destroyed building just like the others, the only notable detail being the mysterious arch at the back.

"...Huh. Glad to see this place is still standing. Would've been a disaster if-"

The dialogue was interrupted by something slamming into the ruined home, and the door (which he personally restored) swinging open to reveal Phina's deadpan expression.

"...You know, it honestly wouldn't be that hard to wait for me to catch up." Fortunately for Samto, her face lighted. "Well, whatever. Let's get this started, yeah?"

Stepping into that ruined building, she noticed a lot more than the arch, but most of it she wasn't inclined to bring up. She really did want to ask about the arch, but she thought Samto would bring that up on his own, so she didn't feel the need.

"Hey, what's this?"

What she did feel the need to mention was a piece of paper depicting a cellar of sorts underneath the ruin. Samto stared at the paper, only realizing what it was a couple seconds in.

"Woah, I thought I lost this! Okay, I assume you see that arch, right? Well, that was supposed to be in that little cellar-type area I had planned."

"Impressive! But why'd you ever stop?"

"Well, I cut the project short because I, uh, sorta broke my hand trying."

Oh.

OH.

Honestly, that didn't come as much of a suprise.

Then Phina started focusing on Samto's hand. Specifically, his right. She had been speaking with him for well over an hour, but somehow she had never noticed that the hand in its entirety was literally wrapped in bandages, and for some odd reason, each individual finger had been wrapped separately, creating the appearance of a glove more than anything. He kept it there for his own reasons, reasons she probably didn't want to know.

She didn't want to think about what the fuck could be under those bandages, so she nervously changed the subject.

"Okay, but what is the creepy arch for, exactly?"

"Oh! Almost forgot, sorry about that. Just... don't call me crazy for this, okay?"

Well, that was terrifying. But before Phina could ask questions, Samto spoke again.

"Y'see, I'm planning for this arch to be used in a... ritual of sorts? I honestly don't really know."

"...I see. Then can I guess?"

"Honestly? You'd probably describe it better than me."

To be perfectly honest, she was fucking clueless. She did have a slight idea of what it could be, but it was virtually impossible, it was so ridiculous that-

Wait.

That was it.

"Oh! I think I got it! See, while I was getting all the stuff you said you needed, i remember some old guy talking to me about... "alternate universes" or something like that? It made total sense when he said it. He said that for every possible occurrence, there's a world where that didn't happen, or vise versa. Or something like that. Is that what's going on here?"

Samto went white. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"I think I get it! The plan is to use some weird magic to unfuck our timeline!"

"That's the plan! One... little snag though. I actually have no clue how any of this works."

The entire world fell silent for a solid minute, as if the Gods themselves were impressed with Samto's sheer stupidity.

Once again, it was Phina who broke the silence.

"WHAT. THE HELL. Are you serious right now?!"

"Wait, wait! Just... just hear me out, okay?!" Samto took a minute to find any justification that didn't make him hate himself more than he already did. He didn't find one. "...Okay, nevermind. This is my fault."

"I KNOW, SAMTO. I KNOW." His miserable face made a pang of sympathy go through her heart. "...Look. I'm not blaming you. Everything sucks right now! Hardin won, we lost Marth, and we don't know where our friends are, or if they're even alive! You just need to start thinking stuff out, that's all!"

Most of the tension had been released, but rather obviously, she was still pissed. If she was to be honest to herself, she just wanted to deck him in his face as hard as she could. But that would hurt, obviously, and she didn't want to hurt him more than he already had been.

So she did the next best thing.

Taking a fistful of gold from a satchel she had taken to carrying, she just fucking threw it at Samto. It missed, and landed next to the arch.

(dont fucking shit on me for this the chapter's gone on long enough)

Samto turned to face Phina, looking absolutely dumbfounded.

"...Did. Did you just throw your money at-"

"I'M SORRY!"

A suffocating, awkward air hung. It hurt. It was actually, physically painful for them.

Thankfully for all of us, awkward apologies were sidetracked in favor of the noises coming from the arch. The coins Phina threw? Literally fucking levitating. It was kind of hard to tell what else was happening, considering that the arch had essentially exploded into light.

When the light finally died, it was revealed that the arch held a portal. The ritual had succeeded without anyone even knowing it had succeeded!

Our heroes(?), however, were a little less than impressed.

"ARE. YOU. _**KIDDING ME?!"**_  Phina screamed, "I DRAGGED A WAGON FROM KNORDA TO SOME BUMFUCK VILLAGE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE FOR  _ **THIS?!** **"**_

"Ah, I see how it is!" Samto said, clinging to the gate while wearing an expression of unadulterated, yet comedic anger,  "I waste countless hours of my my life on you, and yet it's when she gives ya money that you open up?!"

"Yeah, dumb whore of a portal you are!" Phina said, and turned to Samto, "Okay, seriously! We need to go!"

"Wait, what? What about Navarre? Didn't you say-"

"If he's out there, he'll find us! Same goes for Ogma! Yes, I know. Everyone does. Let's go!"

"Eh, I dunno. I mean-"

" _ **LET'S. GO.**_ " The last thing Phina said before jumping into the white light.

"Okay, okay! I'm coming!" Samto said, stumbling backwards into the vortex.

The portal closed moments later.

The sun rose over the ruins, marking the start of a new day.

And a fresh start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> update: now that i've properly slept, i realize now that this is gonna be a nightmare to finish  
> but damn if i wont try my hardest.
> 
> also. sorry this first chapter is so long hhhh the others wont be as long i swear


End file.
